This blog started as a journal for my then 2 year old daughter, hence the title sweet, pretty and naughty, where I wrote her "first" adventures as a toddler. Fast forward to today..I'm in Brunei, trying my way through the adventures of what life will offer me. Expect to read about architecture,interior design, travel & most of all my musings as a mom. This blog is dedicated to my daughter...love you always. - Mommy

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

English 101

Its only been 3 just 3 classes, on Jea's first week of school at Kiddo Academy but I can already see that I made the right decision. At first 2 days I was really frustrated of what I've been seeing through the CCTV. There was not much that's happening. Very few lessons and activities are far in between. They mostly play and sleep in school. I thought she wasn't learning anything. The very paranoid mom in me, and of course with the same frustrations that I was hearing with the fellow mommies, wanted to go to the school and tell them what I wanted and don't want o see.

And we did, the 3 of us (Owie, Lea and me) went to school to talk to them regarding how we wanted it to be. Asking them what was happening an what do they intend to teach the very precious children. We went there to talk to teacher Jo and she explained it very well. They intentionally didnt give the kids so much lessons and activities on the first week because they dont want them to be shocked of what school is. They want the kids to feel that they are just playing without knowing that they are already learning. The teachers are very accommodating and caring. I was touched to see how they attend to Jeam from her eating, and even carrying her, singing lullaby for her to sleep in the afternoon. I know that they are extending not just an arm, a leg but most importantly their heart into caring for the kids.

Actually I think, its only the parents that are expecting too much. Especially me, since I know that Jea is very intelligent, I wanted them to teach her so much and to push her too much, not thinking that this might do more harm.

For now, I am really happy and appreciative that I enrolled her to Kiddo Academy. I can already see how she has learned. It is really hard for me to train her to speak in English since most people in our home talk to her in tagalog. Now she casually uses English as language for conversation. i am shocked and very happy to hear her say few words and sentences in english. Even nangnang pau is really shocked. She usually talks to Jea in tagalog too, but when she noticed that Jea now speaks a lot of english she instantly became aware to talk to her more in english.

These are some of those english:

We woke up on a rainy day and asked me "What's that?" and I said, "umuulan". She told me in a sarcastic voice, "tagalog?". So I laughed and tolg her, "oh, its raining".

I offered her something to eat.. and her answer? "No, thank you."

We went to buy some markers for Kristo and Sasha too. When we get to the car she said " Mama, we bought markers for Kristo and Sasha."

When she opened a bag of chips, she went to me and said "you want?" then gave me one and said "take one"

When she accidentally dropped her Clay into water she said " oh my! my clay"

When she finsihed washing her hands she said "Im done."

There are a lot more but I cant remember it all.

I know this is very basic english. But I've been training her for a long time already and she really wont speak in english. She knows and understand english but she wont speak it because basically she doesnt believe that there are other people who speak it too. Since she commonly hear tagalog in out home. Its only me and mama who speak to her in english. The rest of the family doesnt belive that she needs to know english. For them, she will learn it on a later age. But for me, she has to use it as her basic and first language since nowadays most kids speak more in english than in tagalog. I dont want her to be left out or to think that she is dumb or in anyway inferior to others. She is so intelligent and making her speak in english is very easy for her if we only train her to.

34 comments:

Rest assured you're building a foundation for her that will allows her to easily switch between languages as she gets older. From her young age, you've gotten her used to being bilingual, which bodes very well for her future.

My parents did the same for me with three languages in our home when I was a kid. As I got older, things evened out to the point that when I graduated uni and went to work, it was no problem for me to work in an environment completely in one language or another. Definitely a great advantage, and you should be proud for giving this to her.

cutie

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